Characters in Flight - reviews and thoughts please

[Mandi Bartz]

We will be spending our first evening in Disney Springs and the hubby wants to do the Characters in Flight. How did you like it? For the kids pricing, do you know what the age cut off is? There are 5 of us, and I'm just curious to see if this is worth $100. Although this is the one thing hubby is asking to do, and considering how many Disney purses he lets me buy, I'm sure we will be doing it, lol!!

 

[jaysmom4285]

I've done this a few times. The only restriction for children is that a child younger than 9 has to be accompanied by an adult. It's a tethered helium balloon that goes up about 400 feet. It doesn't take much of a breeze to ground it, so you'll need to check to see if it is going up. I'm not afraid of heights at all, and I really enjoyed it. It stays up for about ten minutes, and you have some nice views of the property. There is a sturdy railing enclosing the part where you're standing, and there's netting going from the top of the railing all the way up, so nothing can fall out. The netting has fairly large openings, so it's easy to take a picture without the netting getting in the way. The balloon can sway a bit, and when people move around from one side to the other, it can tilt a little when the weight shifts. It isn't abrupt or steep or anything like that, but if anyone is a bit uneasy, it can be somewhat unnerving to feel it moving. It doesn't take many people at a time - maybe 8-10 as I recall. If you can get there before 10 AM, the rates are cheaper - $10 a head.

 

[Pkltm]

We have done it as well, we enjoyed the views and took many pictures. As PP said only about 8-10 people go p at a time, we found it to be worth the money.

 

[TexasKiwiPrincess]

We did Characters in Flight during our trip in January. It is not run by Disney but by a third party contractor so no Discounts for Disney Visa card holders, D23 members, Annual Passholders etc. What you see is what you get. It's a big balloon, you go up, you look around at buildings, boats, and water, then you come down. All four of us (me DH, DD10 and DD9) thought it was an okay experience, but glad we can cross it off our list and have no desire to do it again.

 

[Crystal824]

We did it several years ago. We did it early in the morning because the lines were too long at night. We had planned to do it the night we went to Downtown Disney, but the line was over an hour. We went early on our AK morning to do it. DD was 2, and I honestly don't recall if we had to buy her a ticket. We were the only ones to go up on our flight. I found it a bit unnerving. I'm not exactly afraid of heights, but the balloon moved around a bit and my daughter would not stay still. I didn't realize there would be this huge hole in the middle of the balloon. You can only walk around the edges. We took a lot of pictures. The views are spectacular. I'm glad we did it. It was a interesting experience, but I don't have to do it again.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

DS8 and I did it about 2 years ago on an evening in August. The line was excruciatingly long. I'm glad we did it as I was curious, but I wouldn't do it again. If you can, try to go up during Illuminations.

 

[pickles]

You can often get discount coupon through groupon.com

I did it once and enjoyed it. Nice views

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

You can also get a discount using CAA / AAA. My teen DD's went and really enjoyed it (I'm afraid of heights). It's a unique experience. They said that the pilot was really great, answering questions and explaining things as they went up.